KREUGER CRASH

Hokitika Guardian, 17 June 1933, Page 4

KREUGER CRASH

£29,000,000 LOSS INYOLYED. LONDON, June 14. The Finance Editor cf the “Daily Mun” says that the disastrous effects cf the Kreuger crash are disclosed in a report of the Swedish match company, which Ivar Kreuger founded.

ine report is one of the most extraordinarsy documents dealing with joint stock finance ever issued. The directors state that it is impossible to close the books with the exactitude that the law requires.

Provisional accounts disclose the stupendous Ices in 1932 of £29,000,000. The company’s claims against the Kreuger estate are entered as “one kroner” (Is Hd). The Kreuger Toll Company and the International Match Company, both bankrupt, make huge claims against the Swedish Company, which the Swedish Company repudiates.

Ivar Kreuger, head of the gigantic Swedish match company and affiliated companies, committed suicide in Paris on March 12, 1932, leaving personal debts of £18,700,000 in addition to direct liabilities of £16,000,000. His death caused heavy losses to investors, especially in Sweden. The investigation which followed showed that the “Match King” was nothing more than an audacious swindler, who had included the forging of foreign bonds worth millions in liis methods of finance.